Well-Known Member

To hold out possibly the best attacking team for 3 sets of 6 in a row in the second half is phenominal. What an improvement.

Stewart.

Improves again. Was hovering around the rucks more today and looking for the offload. Much better involvement in attack. His defensive positional play was top class - showing Slater the line and belting the crap out of him and spilling the ball was great to watch. However what warms my heart the most is he is now starting to shout orders in defence. He may not be the general yet but Major Stewart is coming along nicely.

Donald.

Very hard to fault. Made a couple of runs in the second but wasnt effective so stayed out of the way. Obviously the Melbourne game plan was to steer clear of our left side as we had a new right side.

Stephenson

Great game. Very solid in defence and came in and looked for the ball. People are calling for Matai over Steppa but in a game were the kicks were targetted at the right side Steppa still made as many metres. Came in and did the hard yards on numerous occasions, hitting the 100m mark. He is improving with every game.

Matai

As far as debuts go, you dont get much better. Put in plenty of effort, went looking for the ball and was solid in defence. Plenty of attacking raids down the right side but no cracks all day. Playing with his partner from PL certainly helped. Their understanding of each others game was invaluable.

Creary

Back in the side after a long absence has played extremely well. As with Matai his defence was solid and attack good. Came looking for the ball and made his presence known against his much more highly fancied opponants. His only blemish was a dropped bomb in our in goal but he had the presence of mind to knock it dead.

Witt

Still finding his feet. His attacking options were much better today, let down by his field kicking at times. Defence is still his best attribute making many good tackles in close. Needs to practise his bombs and get his confidence back in his kicking game. I still see a similar path to monahan last year and think he will come good in teh second half of the season.

Monahan

Yet another captains knock. As captain his record now stands at 8 and 3. Not as outstanding as last week in attack his defence was terrific. Put a 1 in the try column for his tackle to dislodge the ball in our in goal to stop a guarenteed try. Field kicking was good but like orford seemed a bit rushed and weight was an issue. Unlike Orford he adjusted and fixed the problem. Out played his more fancied opponent.

Kite

When he finds his feet he will be sensational. He is making some good metres in attack whilst looking a bit nervous. His hands are still an issue but im sure Des is doing all he can to fix this. Defensively this guy is a machine. His hits look as big as Kylie's. All i can say is watch out.

Randall

With the injured players returning in round 5 its back to PL for Randall. This is a real shame because Ballin is going great in there and will press for Dunley's spot as the clubs top hooker in teh not too distant future. Played the same game weve seen for the last 18 months when he actually makes the field. Great defence and blind side followed by blind side attack. His delivery was still average and needs improvement if he is to feature strongly in this team.

Heckenberg

Another fantastic performance from the workhorse. His try was a classic prop try and beautiful to watch. Didnt get over used this week, but still made good metres plenty of tackles and SFA errors and mistackles. After last weeks offload he backed up his new skills. This week he threw a good offload and passed the ball along the line. Is there anything he cant do.

Menzies

Relinquishing the captaincy is the best move he has made. His defence is **** hopt and each week he becomes more and more dangerous in attack. Another top effort by our living legend.

Watmough

Missed one important tackle to let the storm in for the first try. From then on he played the house down. In defence he is playing at least 5 kilos above his weight range and he just keeps coming. In attack his leg drive is sensational, breaking a few tackles on the weekend. Making over 200m in a game through 21 hitups is sensational. The energy he plays with is starting to feed though some of the others. After BK's performance last week i wasnt sure that you could see a better backrowers game. I may have just witnessed it. Toped metres made and 4th in tackles made he was on fire yet again.

Kennedy

Whatever we are paying him - he is giving it back double. Playing with a niggle his attack was slightly down this week on what we have seen in the first 2 rounds. However his defence was yet again sensational. After being taken off for a breather mid way through the first half he said to des that he wasnt going to come off again, and he didnt. A true leader and one of the main reason Newcastle is at the bottom of the ladder.

Willo

Given little game time again this week is starting to become redundent. I still think he is our answer for the first 20 as hooker as we used in game 1. His defence is great but his penetration in attack has been poor. If randall doesnt go then i think willo will get the axe as much as i hate to say it. Today was just another example of his lack of penetration.

Luelui

Did what was asked, made some big hits but did it without running out of the line leaving a hole. His attack in the second half was good - made a ripper run, quick play the ball for BK to hit it up, then BK offloaded for Kylie to make another 10m through pure strength. Still settling a bit with the new roster he is playing good solid footy

Harris

Improving. Defence again was great - especially in the second. Some of his hits looked like it had to be lulu. His attacking runs had more penetration but he looks nothing like the man we saw hitting the ball up hard and fast early last year. Id still like to seem him given more time as he appears to be down on confidence following the injury and its increasing each game.

Dunley

Biggest improver this year. Another clean game from him. His attacking was very very good and he made plenty of metres against a storm pack that was paying him close attention. His choice of when to run and when to pass has been fantastic - he very rarely gets caught by the markers. Defence was solid again and he looks nothing like the Dunley of 2004.

Member

Hey guys! Im procrastinating something severe right now !wall: but heard all the good news from my fluffball. Is all good, eh? Also got a very enthusiastic phonecall last night... and lotsa stories today. Guessing you guys had a fabbo time, eh? !drunk: And is good to see the team do so well! !dance: Anyways have fun dudes, keep smiling! (and hopefully there will be many more reasons to smile this season...)

UFO Hunter

First try was Monas fault. He chased the man across out of the line so when the ball was turned back inside, watmough had to chase the bloke through the hole monas left and thought he did a good job to nearly stop him.

Winging it

Staff Member

First try was Monas fault. He chased the man across out of the line so when the ball was turned back inside, watmough had to chase the bloke through the hole monas left and thought he did a good job to nearly stop him.

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Exactly the way I saw it Flipper. He was about 10 metres away from where I was and he was just too eager to hunt in the play the ball and left a gap. All the same i thought he had a very good game.